Teacher’s association drops defamation suit against PC party activist

The threat of a seven-fgure defamation lawsuit launched by the Alberta Teachers’ Association has triggered an apology and retraction from a longtime supporter of the Alberta PC party accused of defaming the organization. In June, the ATA filed a $1-million lawsuit against Piotr (Peter) Pilarski, a former campaign manager for Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, over comments Pilarski made on Twitter suggesting the association supports and condones pedophiles.

calgaryherald

Updated: July 13, 2014

Piotr (Peter) Pilarski served as the campaign manager for Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, the vice-chair of the Task Force for Teaching Excellence — a committee commissioned by Education Minister Jeff Johnson.Handout

The threat of a seven-fgure defamation lawsuit launched by the Alberta Teachers’ Association has triggered an apology and retraction from a longtime supporter of the Alberta PC party accused of defaming the organization.

In June, the ATA filed a $1-million lawsuit against Piotr (Peter) Pilarski, a former campaign manager for Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, over comments Pilarski made on Twitter suggesting the association supports and condones pedophiles.

“That’s so outrageous that we won’t stand by and have someone malign our association or teachers in the province that way,” Mark Ramsankar, president of the ATA, said Sunday.

In its statement of claim, the association said Pilarski’s comments were “intended to subject the ATA to ridicule, hatred and contempt.”

The ATA was seeking $500,000 in general damages and $500,000 in punitive damages, as well as an injunction restraining Pilarski from publishing or republishing the allegedly defamatory words.

Pilarski tweeted a short apology only after the ATA filed its claim with the Court of Queens Bench in June. He backed down further this month.

In a letter to the ATA, Pilarski said his tweets were “capable of being understood to mean” the association supports or condones pedophilia and doesn’t take appropriate disciplinary action against teachers found to be pedophiles or have committed child sexual abuse.

“It was not my intention to convey the meaning set forth above, which I acknowledge are not true,” Pilarski said in his retraction, adding he removed the offending tweets and retraction his comments.

“I apologize to the ATA for the offending remarks,” Pilarski wrote.

With that, the legal matter has been put to rest, said Ramsankar.

“There was no monetary settlement,” he said. “This was just a full retraction (and) this was what we were looking for.”

Ramsankar said the ATA is open to debate and discussion about education and the teaching profession, but said the comments made by Pilarski crossed the line and forced the association to take action.

“We’re going to engage in a variety of topics and discussions and we’ll never back away from having those discussions,” he added. “But for somebody just to make those types of inflammatory statements about our association, we won’t stand by.”

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